Summary

I am a graduate student in the Department of Sociology at Princeton University, working on my dissertation that explores that transformation of the organic food industry in the United States.

I was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, and after graduating from Lincoln East High School attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Saint Olaf College where I earned a B.A. in mathematics and English literature. Following graduation from Saint Olaf, I moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota, the best big small town in the world.

With my brother Andy and our friend John Pucci, I helped start a small cafe named Motor Oil Industrial Coffees in the former Art Lounge of Speedboat Gallery, where we had punk bands play in the basement every weekend and served chocolate doughnuts every Friday. Bands like No Means No, Savage Aural Hotbed, Trenchmouth, the Dog-Faced Hermans amongst many others. Joey Waronker (who later played drums for Beck and R.E.M.) and John Kimbrough of Walt Mink are pictured here -- and the lighting and ambience you see are pretty accurate depictions. Erik Farseth published an amusing synopsis of Motor Oil that still makes me laugh. It was published in his book Wipe Away My Eyes: Underground culture and politics 1979-1999, "a social history of the post-punk underground, illustrated with original woodcuts and collage art." (I probably need to create a separate Motor Oil Tribute page here as well.)

While transfusing my lifeblood into the Motor Oil, I was also working at various Twin Cities restaurants, most of which are now extinct, including Fitzgerald's, the Loring Cafe, D'Amico's, the New French Cafe, and W.A. Frost. Following the advice and counsel of several friends and Macalester College professors, I entered the Graduate School of Princeton University in 1997. I hope to leave it soon.

Here's a few miscellaneous personal pages that amused me when I first created and posted them:

• craig-upright-tm.html
• leapfrog.html
• ratboy.html

I am currently working on my dissertation in Saint Paul, be sure to contact me if you're coming through.

-- cbu (10/19/2004)